Bring Me Flowers (Detectives Kane and Alton #2)(64)
After collecting her coffee and a muffin then informing Walters of the change of shift, she had made it back to her office when Samuel Jenkins, Rogers’ lawyer, stormed into the department and appeared at her door doing a great impression of a raging bull. She gave him her sweetest smile. “Good morning.” She glanced at her watch. “You made it here in record time. Not speeding, were you?”
“Exactly what evidence do you have against my client to arrest him on suspicion of murder? Who is he supposed to have murdered?”
Jenna inhaled her coffee then took a sip. She needed to stall for time. What she had was circumstantial, but with luck, her deputies would find something else to use against Steve Rogers. “Close the door and take a seat.” She placed her mug on the table and leaned back in her chair. “I have copies of the witnesses’ statements but you’ll need the background information.”
“Witnesses to what?” Jenkins gave her a look to freeze hell, and placing his briefcase on the floor, he sat in the chair before her desk. “I am very close to making a complaint about harassment, but I doubt you would take much notice so I intend to take my complaint straight to the mayor.”
“I see.” Jenna met his gaze and collected the copies of the statements from the folder on her desk. “Three girls have been brutally murdered: Felicity Parker, Joanne Blunt, and Kate Smith. These witnesses—and I might add here that Kate Smith was a witness and I have her signed statement, which as she is also a victim is suspicious in itself.” She took a breath. “These witnesses can place Mr. Rogers at or close to the scene at the time of death. He knows two of the murdered girls and, as we believe the killer hacked their computers to discover their whereabouts, is an expert in the field.”
Jenkins’ mouth dropped open but he remained silent.
“At the moment, we are conducting searches of his car and house, and any computers he has in his possession will be examined for evidence.” She reached for her coffee and eyed him over the rim of the mug. “I read your client his rights and he has remained silent. If you would like to speak to him, I will take you to him now.”
Jenkins made a great show of reading the documents, punctuated by huffs and puffs of annoyance. “You have nothing. This is all supposition. I will speak to my client—alone, as is his right.”
Jenna pushed to her feet, eyeing the muffin on her plate with a sense of loss. “I’ll take you to him now but we need to interview him as well.” She called to Walters to follow and left him on guard outside the cells.
Delivering Jenkins to his client, she offered him a smile. “You should be aware I am issuing a statement to the press this morning, and with luck we’ll have more witnesses coming forward. I’ll send the evidence we discover to the prosecutor; I’m sure under full disclosure he will forward the details to your office in due course.” She turned and headed back to her muffin. I sure hope my deputies find something.
Thirty-Eight
After dressing in protective coveralls, booties, and mask, Kane pulled on a pair of latex gloves then popped the trunk of Steve Rogers’ dark blue sedan. A waft of sewerage hit him in the face and he whistled. “Ah, Wolfe, I think we have something here.” He waved Rowley over to take photographs. The camera clicked twenty or more shots and he waved to get his attention. “That’s good enough.”
He stood to one side to allow Wolfe, dressed in blue coveralls with only his eyes visible, to peer into the recess. “Muddy boots and a shovel. What do you think he was doing in the forest?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, but from the smell and what looks like blood and definitely hair, he wasn’t up to anything good.” Wolfe’s pale eyes peered at him over the top of his mask. “I’ve collected an assortment of hair and fibers from the interior and swabbed any suspicious areas. If you could collect fingerprints, I’ll work here. Rowley is in charge of the samples—it’s best we have one man doing that job so we don’t step on each other’s toes.” He removed the boots from the trunk and dropped them into an evidence bag held open by Rowley. “Cover both ends of the shovel then roll the entire thing in plastic.”
“Yes, sir.” Rowley juggled the huge evidence bag as if it had a severed head inside, gave a snort of laughter, then complied.
Kane nodded. “Right, I’ll leave the logging of evidence to him. I’m interested to see what shows up under luminol.”
“Yeah, me too.”
After dusting the car and running the scanner over the prints, he returned to watch Wolfe. The meticulous way he collected evidence impressed him. The man was so methodical and nothing escaped his attention. One hour later, satisfied he had everything he needed, Wolfe expertly sprayed the trunk with luminol. Kane extinguished the lights and gaped at the bloodstains showing under the UV black flashlight.
“I know it’s blood but I have yet to determine if it’s human blood. He could have killed a dog and buried it in the forest. If it is human, I’ll run a DNA test to see if it matches any of our victims.” Wolfe’s blond eyebrow rose. “If it doesn’t fit the genetic profile of any of the victims here or interstate, and it is human blood, then we’ll have another mystery on our hands.” His gaze moved to Kane. “We should search the house first and grab his laptop. If this blood is human, we’ll have to backtrack from where you saw his car parked in case he buried a body close by. It won’t be easy to do a grid search of the forest on our own. We’ll need cadaver dogs. If the test is positive, I’ll make a few calls when we get back to the office and see if we can get a team down here first thing in the morning.”